Since We Found Serenity (A Firefly Fanfiction)

Chapter 8: Santa Comes to The Serenity

She knew what it was, though she had seen it once before, on Boreas. Her subconscious had tapped into the memory of sitting in the wide commons area next to the lobby, while her parents checked into the resort. She clung to her brother's hand while she watched wide-eyed at the magical sight no other planet could afford.

"What is wrong with the rain?" She asked him. "It has erased the planet!" She pointed to the vast expanse outside. There should have been mountains, there should have been valleys; at the very least she half-expected to see some kind of vegetation, as there was on every other planet she had seen.

He looked at her, his eyes full of knowledge. "It is not rain, Mei-mei; it is snow. See?" He pointed to it drifting down. "The moisture in the clouds freezes in crystalline form, and precipitates from it, but when it lands on the cold ground, rather than dissipating, it retains its shape and piles up, covering everything in layer upon layer of ice crystals."

The little girl gawked at the notion. "And they never go away?"

"They do, after a while; friction builds and melts the crystals, and they're replaced by others. But it's pretty to look at, don't you think?"

"Pretty..." even at that age, her analytical mind was too strong, having an easier time computing the rate of accumulation and distribution of the crystals outside to find any pleasure in something for merely being "pretty."

"Make it stop!" She had cried, feeling the terror building inside her. "We will be buried completely within six cycles!"

She had spent the entire holiday absolutely refusing to look at the outside world after that. How differently she felt now! How badly she wanted to go back, to change the way she thought. Imagining the scene again, this time, she stood next to her brother and tilted her head up to watch the snow skitter over the roof. It whirled and swirled till it hit the clear domed ceiling, where it eventually slid off the slick sides.

"Mei-mei, look at the snow," he said. "Mei-mei, do you feel the snow?"

Suddenly she wasn't just watching it fall. Her eyes no longer looked to the front, she couldn't turn away from that high, snowy roof—and just like that, there was no roof. The snowflakes swirled overhead and just kept falling, down, down to land on her face. She felt the touch, the sting, the wet, the gone. Touch over and over.

"Feel the snow, Mei-mei," her brother's voice said. "It's time to wake up now. Wake up, Mei-mei!"

River opened her eyes. She lay in her bunk, but it was so cold! She reached up to feel her face, and found cool beads of moisture there. More icy grains peppered her face. She covered her head with her hand and sought out its source: Simon, grinning like a child, stood at the door of their berth, sending founts of sparking whiteness out of a beaker in his hand.

"Merry Christmas, Mei-Mei!" He said, laughing as he watched her dance in the flurry.

"You made snow!" River cried, catching a few crystals on her palm and watching them vanish.

Simon shook the last of it out of his beaker and gave a little shrug. "I had to do something to make it feel more festive," he said.

The twinkle in his sister's eyes told him he had succeeded.

"Excuse me!" Mal's voice squawked out of the intercom. "This is your captain speaking. All hands to the cargo hold. Repeat, we have a situation! All hands to the cargo hold!"

River stiffened. Simon squinted in confusion. "Situation?" He repeated. "What situation?"

River was already running down the corridor.